Franklin County can fund human services through October
Photo by kev72/flickr
(Chambersburg) — Franklin County will have cash on hand to provide human services through October while Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf and the Republican-controlled legislature hammer out a state budget.
The county oversees human services programs costing $26 million a year and serving about 48,000 people. The state pays for a vast majority of the services.
State funds dried up in July after the legislature and Wolf failed to come to an agreement before the budget deadline.
“As a result of our conservative approach to managing the taxpayers’ money, we should be able to sustain vital human services for children and youth, seniors, mental health, intellectual disabilities, early childhood development, homelessness, and drug and alcohol treatment and prevention,” Commissioner David Keller said. “Our experience in dealing with the budget impasse of 2009 has served us well, and we are taking a similar approach this time around.”
County staff is to review the funding status every 30 days and report to commissioners, Keller said. Commissioners then will determine if their current decision to maintain services is reasonable.
“At this time the board intends to maintain services at least through October,” Keller said.
Local school districts have said they have the cash to make it through the end of September before feeling the pinch of no state budget. Counties and schools learned to cope during Ed Rendell’s administration when state budgets were late more often than not.
This year the two sides in Harrisburg have not moved much in the month since the budget deadline.
House Speaker Mike Turzai, R-Marshall, has said that overriding Gov. Tom Wolf’s veto of a Republican-sponsored budget is an option, according to TribLive.com.
Wolf vetoed the GOP budget as well as bills to privatize the sale of liquor and to ban guaranteed pensions for future state and school employees.
Local legislators, all Republicans, say that Wolf’s proposed budget would increase income taxes by 20 percent and the state sales tax by 10 percent. Pennsylvanians would carry the bulk of Wolf’s additional tax burden, not a severance tax on natural gas drillers.
Jim Hook can be reached at 717-262-4759.
This article comes to us through a partnership between Public Opinion Online and WITF.
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